Wed, 19 September 2018
Few institutions are more equipped to peek in on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with more understanding, sympathy and even critique than the Community of Christ. They too have been dealing the same history with which the Mormons have been struggling. But they are a generation or two ahead of the Mormons, suffering the natural convolutions and troubles that come from any institutional reckoning. As a result, they know what it means to pay the price for, and then to enjoy the spiritual liberation that comes from squaring up to your tradition's past sins. |
Tue, 11 September 2018
Tom Mikota has designed special effects on such blockbuster movies as Avatar, King Kong, Tintin etc. But it wasn't until he was shoulder tapped to work on the 360 degree Joseph Smith film on Temple Square that things began to occur to him. After a lifetime of faithful service, he was introduced to the contradictory first vision accounts that he was employed to represent as an employee of the church. |
Mon, 27 August 2018
![]() Tim Kosnoff is a US attorney who has spent the last two decades representing victims of sexual abuse. His introduction to the LDS Church and their lawyers was when he represented Jeremiah Scott who was sexually abused by a serial paedophile Frank Curtis. His work, in this case, appears in Lisa Davis' legal thriller, 'The Sins of Brother Curtis.' Tim joins me to discuss his experiences as a representative and advocate for sexual abuse victims against the LDS Church. |
Sun, 19 August 2018
![]() While Mormons claim Joseph Smith as the founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it is still very much Brigham Young's church. Brigham's leadership was formative in shaping the LDS movements as it is today. The husband of 55 wives Brigham's influence was more than organisational. He was also responsible for establishing a patriarchal structure and suite of doctrines and practices that affirmed that loyalty to the highest priesthood office in the church was the church's primary orthodoxy, and the feminine role was to honour that priesthood. So, what of those who directly inherited Brigham's legacy. What of his female posterity? |
Sat, 11 August 2018
Duane Jennings is the author of the two-volume series "Stumbling Blocks and Stepping-Stones." In this conversation, we consider (notwithstanding current LDS policy) an LDS queer theology through the Wesleyan Quadrilateral of scripture, reason, tradition, and experience.
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Sat, 21 July 2018
In 1990 the Pace Memorandum reported the findings of General Authority Glenn Pace in which alleged victims described ritual abuse. This was followed by a Utah State Legislature investigation in which hundreds of alleged victims were interviewed. These testimonies were later dismissed as 'false memories.' Yet, research indicates that the undermining of these testimonies was not best professional practice for the mental health community. Tara Workman-Tulley is a Provo based therapist who specializes in complex trauma. Many of her clients continue to report childhood experiences of ritual abuse that have uncanny similarities. Tara joins me to discuss sexual abuse and sex trafficking in Mormon communities. |
Tue, 17 July 2018
Benjamin Knoll and Cami-Jo Bollin discuss their new book, 'She Preached the Word: Women's Ordination in Modern America.' Their study uses novel survey data that reveals a surprising relationship between political orientation and an acceptance of women's ordination. This, of course, raises one of America's most pressing questions: How strongly are America's religious sensibilities shaped by their much polarized US political scene? |
Sat, 7 July 2018
A meditation to accompany our thinking and feeling into how we once or are currently living in Fowler's Stage Three: Synthetic-Conventional Faith. |
Sat, 7 July 2018
![]() Sarah Hughes-Zabawa rejoins me to discuss Fowler's Stages of Faith: The Synthetic-Conventional Stage. Stage Three is usually entered into during adolescence. It's that stage in which we imagine that our views represent an accurate and faithful totality of truth. This stage also sees us looking at institutions as the bearers of that truth, and we reward those institutions with our agreement and consent to their authority. During this stage, we come to believe that there are goals to accomplish and in meeting those goals we'll please God and receive blessings. But, as we'll discuss, stage three also has its complications.
Direct download: Sara_Hughes-Zabawa__Stage_Four_Final.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:38pm MST |
Thu, 28 June 2018
In June 2014 Kate Kelly, the vocal spokesperson for Ordain Women, was excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for apostasy. |
Sun, 24 June 2018
Sabine (name changed) served faithfully in the church for years. Then several incidents involving her children occurred causing her to act swiftly to protect them from bullying and shaming from adult leaders. The result was a fall-out with her local LDS community followed by a request that she no longer enter the church premises. |
Thu, 21 June 2018
Brian and Gina discuss the complexity of the experience of Mormonism when confronted with eyes wide open to both its past, its present and its changing contexts. |
Mon, 18 June 2018
Kirtland is a singular place in the history of the LDS movement. The Kirtland Temple once stood as a symbol of a faith that shattered and splintered upon Joseph Smith's death. Now it's a powerful symbol of a shared history and language of faith rooted in multiple denominations. As a spiritual home to many, the Kirtland Temple, cared for by the Community of Christ, is remarkable in its power and willingness to gather in all expressions of the Restoration. |
Thu, 31 May 2018
![]() Mormons don't have a robust theology of the cross. They are more inclined to say that, 'We celebrate the Living Christ, not the death of Christ'. Though Mormons claim to be Christian this defining sign of Christianity is missing, while other symbols taken from Free Masonry are abundant. Michael Reed, author of 'Banishing the Cross: The emergence of a Mormon Taboo' joins me to discuss how this circumstance came to be. |
Tue, 15 May 2018
![]() Derrick Clements and Gina Colvin get real about the price of motherhood in this somewhat Mormon flavoured review of Tully by Jason Reitman, starring Charlize Theron. |
Sun, 6 May 2018
In Part Two the World Ministry Tour of President Russell Nelson, Sister Wendy Watson Nelson, Elder Jeffrey Holland and Sister Patricia Holland comes under fire. |
Sun, 6 May 2018
Peter Bleakley offers optimistic and enthusiastic commentary on the new ministering programme currently being rolled out to replace Home and Visiting Teaching. |
Mon, 30 April 2018
Gina and movie reviewer Derrick Clements discuss Love, Simon. |
Sun, 29 April 2018
![]() Dr Michael Ferguson is a research fellow at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School. He works at the intersections of culture and brain. His active research includes cognitive neuroscientific investigations of intelligence, memory, depression, religiosity, depression and spiritual experience.
Michael joins Gina to discuss the relationship between religion, church, spirituality and God. They go deeply into the question of where and how we feel the spirit, and how the spirit is ultimately an embodied experience. |
Sun, 22 April 2018
The Old Testament can be a bit confusing. Biblical scholar Prof. David Bokovoy, joins Gina Colvin to discuss the things that are handy to know in order to really appreciate the Old Testament as a sacred text worth considering today. |
Mon, 16 April 2018
Historian Newell Bringhurst discusses the background to his seminal work, "Saints, Slave and Blacks: The Changing Place of Black People Within Mormonism." |
Thu, 12 April 2018
"There's no point at which we can say, 'I've got it.' Always and forever, mystery gets you. Our searching for God is a search for symbols, analogies and metaphors. All theological language is an approximation, offered tentatively in holy awe. That's the best human language can achieve. We must absolutely must, maintain a fundamental humility before the great mystery. If we do not, religion always worships itself and its formulations, and never God." So says Fr. Richard Rohr, and thus contemplates art historian and medievalist Professor Nancy Ross. Nancy reflects on the place of art in religion in the West and how that has shaped her own spiritual development.
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Sat, 31 March 2018
General Conference is often scheduled at the same time as Holy Week. While there is much in LDS History to suggest that the formal organisation of the church occurred not coincidently with Holy Week of 1830, we are according to Bob Rees, still missing out on the most important season of the Christian year. |
Fri, 30 March 2018
Sara Hughes-Zabawa returns to discuss Fowler's Stage Two: The Mythic Literal stage. |
Tue, 27 March 2018
Mormon feminist writers and commentators Sara Katherine Staheli-Hanks and Tresa Brown Edmunds respond to the MTC President sex-scandal, and generally to the problem of sexual abuse in the LDS Church. |
Fri, 23 March 2018
Laurie Dipadova-Stocks, a former Stake Relief Society President; Royleane Otteson, a former Ward Relief Society President, and Laurie Lee Hall a former Stake President and now an excommunicated transwoman attending Relief Society discuss women's ministry in the LDS Church. |
Wed, 14 March 2018
A couple of years ago Jena and Glyn Jones sold up everything they had and went on the road on a hunch that God had a mission for them. On their last dollars, and to their great surprise they ended up parking their RV in Short Creek and from there everything changed. |
Tue, 13 March 2018
Faith change or Impasse is often met with a resistance to our early life stories of the Divine. |
Thu, 8 March 2018
In this episode, Jana Spangler (Salt Lake City) and Peter Bleakley (London) have a hard conversation about what is troubling the LDS Church and they seek to grapple with these questions. Is there any hope for change in the LDS Church? Should the church change? What could change? Who could bring that change? And whether or not change in the LDS Church is even worth hanging around for? |
Mon, 26 February 2018
Thomas Merton poses a question for Lent, "Where do we turn for Forgiveness?" |
Fri, 23 February 2018
William V. Smith joins me to discuss his forthcoming book, ‘Textual Studies of the Doctrine and Covenants: The Plural Marriage Revelation.’ |
Sun, 18 February 2018
Lindsay Denton, Melissa Beh and Josh Brazier and I are members of a Lenten Study Group for Mormons. Together we discuss the journey into renewing our spiritual practices. We talk about Lent and how it serves as an ideal time for contemplation and the renewal of our faith lives. |
Fri, 16 February 2018
Who is God, Blaire? |
Mon, 12 February 2018
A guided meditation from Sara Hughes-Zabawa to companion our reflections on Fowlers Stage 0-1. |
Mon, 12 February 2018
In thinking about Fowler's stages model, adults don't tend to discuss the childhood phases. Yet, we all have parts of each stage present in us, whether some have been mostly passed through, and others are nascent.
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Thu, 8 February 2018
How racist was Joseph Smith? Can the LDS Church really claim Jane Manning James as an example of Joseph Smith's progressive ideals? There's plenty of evidence to suggest that Joseph Smith had a theological imagination for Indigenous Americans, but what did he really think of African Americans? |
Wed, 31 January 2018
Co-authors Judith and James McConkie discuss their breakthrough historical Jesus primer for Mormons; 'Whom Say Ye That I am?: Lessons from the Jesus of Nazareth. |
Sun, 21 January 2018
Thomas McConkie offers a healing meditation. |
Sun, 21 January 2018
Mindfulness teacher; author of ‘Navigating Mormon Faith Crisis’; and Founder of the Lower Lights Sangha, Thomas McConkie, joins Gina to discuss contemplative Mormonism and some of the spiritual practices that are attached to the contemplative traditions. Thomas also offers January 2018’s guided meditation on ‘Healing’, and we chat about some of the resources available that support the Mormon contemplative community. |
Mon, 15 January 2018
With all of the chatter happening in Mormon circles about Prophets, Apostles and Presidents I talk to two people about prophets and prophecy. In Episode 227, Chris Kimball the grandson of the 12th president of the LDS Church, Spencer W. Kimball, talks about what it means to have a Prophet in the family. |
Mon, 15 January 2018
![]() With all of the chatter happening in Mormon circles about Prophets, Apostles and Presidents I talk to two people about prophets and prophecy. |
Sun, 7 January 2018
Two former Bishops who have both experienced a faith crisis respond to the question: 'How can LDS leaders behave more sensitively and with more wisdom to those experiencing a faith crisis?' |
Wed, 3 January 2018
The 2018 A Thoughtful Faith Podcast theme is 'Faithful Change.' Every month we provide a Homily, a meditation on spiritual matters. For January Gina shares a reflection on Divine Absence.
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Thu, 28 December 2017
In a frank discussion, Rebecca Sachiko Burton talks about being the mother of seven children and how she manages parenting with wisdom and openness on the 'Big Tent' side of Mormonism. |
Sat, 23 December 2017
Derrick Clements and Gina Colvin give a quick nod to Thor: Ragnarok and then provide a thoroughly Mormon review of Star Wars VIII. |
Sun, 17 December 2017
Mormon Temple policy doesn't change a great deal from year to year, so the 14 December 2017 announcement that extends the rights of Baptistry officiation to 16-17 year old boys was a surprise. While this might bring gasps of pleasure for the boys, there are, naturally, questions and concerns with respect to the impact this has on Young Women who have been given administrative duties. |
Sun, 10 December 2017
It seems most unMormon for anyone to receive a call to ministry. Mormons are supposed to wait for someone in the church to extend that call and as things stand no call for women in the LDS Church involves ordination. But what happens when Mormon women hear the call? |
Mon, 4 December 2017
![]() Dr.Bill Bunn is a BYU psychiatrist who specializes in adolescent and young adult psychiatric disorders. He joins me to discuss mental illness, the brain and neuroplasticity. We also consider how scrupulosity and anxiety disorders present among young Mormons and missionaries. |
Mon, 27 November 2017
With the promise of education, social mobility and gathering to Zion, many Tongan and Samoan Mormons have made Utah their home. But what are the challenges for Polynesians growing up in Salt Lake where wealth, church leadership, education, and opportunity continue to be a racial privilege? What are the psychic and cultural costs for those children who live between two worlds without really being grounded in either? |
Sun, 26 November 2017
In May 2015 Gina Colvin & Nathan McCluskey recorded a frank conversation about how faith crisis was affecting their marriage. Two and a half years later they find that their differences are now even more marked. Yet, in spite of their now occupying different moral worlds, their differentiation has given rise to new and more profound ways of being in relationship with each other. |
Mon, 20 November 2017
Manhattan-based Psychotherapist Wendy Christian discusses patriarchy in the LDS Church and how this imbalance hurts everyone including men and boys. |
Mon, 30 October 2017
Tom Christofferson's spiritual journey as a gay man took him from Mormonism, out, and back again. Rima Tamaiparea-Puke's spiritual journey as a gay man took him from Catholicism to Mormonism and back to Catholicism. Both stories attest to stories of deep faith and religious devotion. Both stories speak to the need in all of us to be reconciled in one way or another to the faith of our families.
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Sun, 22 October 2017
![]() Ganeshji Cherian, Sarah Howard, Quintin Howard and Nathan McCluskey discuss the cultural mismatch of American Mormon culture with New Zealand culture in the wake of Jacinda Ardern's becoming the Prime Minister of New Zealand. |
Fri, 29 September 2017
Tom Christofferson is gay and he's Mormon. His recently published book 'That We May Be One' is a touching memoir of love, loss, and faith. We discuss the story within his story that our life's journey be underscored by a demonstrative, kind and gentle love, particularly for our LGBTQ brothers, sisters and children. |
Wed, 27 September 2017
Filmmaker, Kendall Wilcox and I delve into the question of why the LDS Church has poured so much legal and political energy into the preservation of heterosexual marriage and its corollary debates over religious freedom. |
Mon, 25 September 2017
Ian Thomson is a public defender in Boise, Idaho. In this podcast, we deconstruct the ideology and practice of excommunication. We also discuss how enmeshed LDS excommunication is with the US judicial system. |
Sun, 17 September 2017
Amiee Flynn-Curran is a non-Mormon ethnographer who did her PhD fieldwork in the Oakland First Ward of the San Francisco Bay Area. Amiee’s was interested in finding out how a conservative Christian church community negotiates the question of gender and sexuality inclusivity. For 18 months Amiee participated in the life of the Oakland First Ward as a participant researcher. Amiee shares some of her research conclusions as an observer looking into how social politics is played out in an LDS ward widely hailed as one of Mormonism's most liberal congregations. |
Thu, 14 September 2017
Melissa Inouye is Chinese, Japanese American and grew up as a Mormon in California, aware of her cultural and ethnic differences from the general LDS population.
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Mon, 4 September 2017
Low retention and a failure to contextualize means that the LDS Church continues to be a minority faith tradition in South American. Missionaries who are called to serve from nations outside, are more often than not culturally incompetent to proselyte in this region of the world and sometimes do more mischief than good. With complex economic and political conditions and even more strained historical relationships with the United States, missionaries and General Authorities too often speak into a cultural void, organising the LDS Church around ideas that work in Utah but have little relevance anywhere else. Samy Galvez (Guatemala) joins me to discuss the Latin American Mormon context and to critique the issues of class, religion, politics, race, culture and ethnicity that are either overlooked or misunderstood in LDS Latin American mission and ecclesial practice. |
Tue, 29 August 2017
Laurie Maffly-Kipp is the Archer Alexander distinguished Professor at the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics in St. Louis. As an observer of Mormonism, she has researched Mormon mission and the way that the LDS Church replicates it self in places beyond it's Utah centre. In this conversation, we discuss Mormonism as a Wasatch Front cultural transplant and consider the issues that arise for both local cultures and for the church as it seeks to be a relevant and vibrant worldwide faith tradition. |
Thu, 17 August 2017
On August 15, 2017 the LDS church issued the following statement: |
Mon, 14 August 2017
"Rachel Hunt-Steenblik wrote 246 small poems exploring aspects of our Heavenly Mother. And BCC’s own Ashley Mae Hoiland complemented these poems with more than 40 original drawings. The result is an intimate discussion of the deep human longing for a Mother God." |
Wed, 9 August 2017
Lancaster University PhD student, Sheldon Kent discusses the esoteric and mystical influences abroad during the early days of Mormonism. In particular, he discusses Emmanual Swedenborg and the impact that this 18th-century philosopher and church man had on Joseph Smith's theology. |
Fri, 21 July 2017
Rich Vial is a Republican representative in the Oregan State Legislature. He's also a former Mormon bishop who went through a faith crisis during his tenure. In this episode, we discuss how to go about having difficult conversations with those who are ideologically and religiously different from ourselves, and how to do that with grace and compassion. |
Tue, 11 July 2017
Jenne de Normandie Eregiro Alderks was a teenage convert from Unitarian Universalism. When she joined the LDS church her mother, knowing somewhat of the strict gender roles in Mormonism, asked her, 'Can you really be a Mormon woman?' One of the hallmarks of the restoration was Joseph Smith's openness to other spiritual traditions and ideas and this seeking has been kept alive in Mormon feminism. Jenne's spiritual seeking is part of a rich intergenerational tradition of Mormon women who quietly keep alive the faith's mysticism.
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Tue, 27 June 2017
Gina Colvin and Bill Reel (host of the popular podcast Mormon Discussions) get together for a chat about what it takes to still be engaged in the LDS Church when so many of their friends have left. They discuss the development of their young testimonies but reflect on how difficult it has become in recent years to love the church with the same enthusiasm they once had. They consider how LDS Church could be better for those who crave a deeper and a kinder experience at church. They also consider their futures as Mormons. |
Fri, 23 June 2017
Dr Alan Jamieson is the senior pastor at the South West Baptist Church in Christchurch, New Zealand. He is an author of multiple books on faith development. We talk about the implications for those ministering to those in faith crisis and how church leaders and communities can best respond to those with doubts and questions. |
Thu, 15 June 2017
LDS Bishops are at the front line as Mormons facing their own questions, concerns and doubts seek their counsel. Too often these local leaders surmise that the person expressing doubt must have done something wrong to get there. 'This isn't the case', says Bishop Jones, a sitting Bishop in Seattle. |
Tue, 6 June 2017
This week Derrick Clements and Gina Colvin cast their critical Mormon eyes over 'Wonder Woman.' |
Thu, 1 June 2017
Mormons all over the world are gathering online in increasing numbers. They do this to process their past, present and future relationships with the church. It is online that they find people who understand their growing or changing faith lives The increasing size and complexity of Online Unchurched Mormonism attest to its utility. But without the formal rules, manners and ethics found in face to face community, online 'progressive' or post-Mormon communities that provoke challenges that signal the community's volatility and vulnerabilities. |
Wed, 31 May 2017
We review Get out, Jordan Peele's break out satirical horror featuring British actor Daniel Kaluuya, and US actress Alison Williams. While we wouldn't recommend seeing Get Out as a church or a Family Home Evening activity, we feel like it needs to be seen by everyone because of its biting treatment of the dangers of White American middle-class liberalism. |
Mon, 15 May 2017
Join Gina Colvin and Derrick Clements for a fun, cheeky, slightly irreverent but joyful review of the latest at the box office! This week we review 'The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2'
Direct download: CMMR_1_-_Guardians_of_the_Galaxy_Vol._2.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:18pm MST |
Sun, 14 May 2017
Too often the unique cultural identity of Canadian Mormonism gets lost in the noise of their neighbours to the South. In 1977 Canadian author Margaret Atwood, said of the United States:
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Fri, 12 May 2017
Chantal Mukamurera is Rwandan. She was born in Burundi, raised in Rwanda and grew up in Germany where she joined the LDS Church and married. She's been Catholic, Mormon and is now preparing for the priesthood ordination in the Community of Christ. |
Wed, 10 May 2017
![]() When Azul Uribe was 11 years old she was sent from Mexico to live with her Grandmother in the US. She lived there for 15 years when she tragically discovered that she was undocumented. After a 2.5 year battle in the courts she was deported to the Mexico with a 10 year ban from reentering the US, leaving behind a life, friends and loved ones. |
Wed, 10 May 2017
![]() When Azul Uribe was 11 years old she was sent from Mexico to live with her Grandmother in the US. She lived there for 15 years when she tragically discovered that she was undocumented. After a 2.5 year battle in the courts she was deported to the Mexico with a 10 year ban from reentering the US, leaving behind a life, friends and loved ones. |
Sun, 7 May 2017
During the month of May 2017, we look at Mormonism across the world and how an American religion makes its way into cultural, national and social systems beyond the United States. We discover that Mormonism isn't the clean and tidy fit that some have romanticised it to be. Mormons outside of the United States invariably pay a heavy tax in trying to negotiate the cultural, social, economic and political demands placed on them by their Utah-based faith tradition. Nepia Mahuika is a 6th generation LDS who was asked one too many times to choose between being Mormon or Māori. |
Sun, 30 April 2017
John Bonner (clinical social worker, singer and grower of flowers) joins me to talk about his growth into manhood as young and gay in one of the most religiously conservative areas in the Mormon corridor. He shares his story of trying to make sense of his young self in a religious and social context in which his kind of manhood was daily rejected. His story is heartbreaking but tinged with moments of delight as he gradually learns to accept, understand and love himself notwithstanding a faith tradition that has shown how little it values him. |
Sun, 23 April 2017
Blaire Ostler joins me to discuss God - God as feminine and masculine; God in Mormon theology; God as a plurality; God as a creator; God without the biological need to procreate; the God of our own imagination ...and much more. |
Thu, 20 April 2017
Daniel Hernandez, PhD Candidate at the University of Auckland, is Mayan but grew up in Rose Park, Salt Lake City, Utah among a mostly Tongan and Samoan community. As both observer and participant in the various cultures of 'Brown Utah' we discuss Kava and the importance of cultivating and preserving traditional practices that build connection to home islands. (Kava as a root extract from a plant found in the Pacific Islands and is consumed as a drink in ceremony. Both Kava drinks and the ceremonies associated have come under General Authority criticism from time to time. BYU-Hawaii and some local leaders have banned it outright.) |
Sun, 16 April 2017
The Rev. Dr. Fatimah Salleh began life as Muslim, converted as a teenager to the LDS Church, served a mission, taught LDS Institute and then, responding to a call, she attended Duke Divinity School. Following a period of discernment, she was recently ordained a Baptist minister. Her call to ministry is part of a colourful journey into finding a God for all and for the least. God is too often the product of a White Western Patriarchy and as a Black, Brown women whose spiritual life was percolated in the intersection of different faith traditions Fatimah is passionate about preaching a God that holds, loves and ministers to everyone. |
Wed, 22 March 2017
The Book of Mormon has been claimed by the LDS Church to be a history of Native Americans. While this proposition has been scaled back over the years it's still somewhat present in a literalist view of the text. But why is it that Native Americans are only rarely and then selectively consulted in the conversation as to the book's origins? Surely the church and Mormon scholars, if they take seriously this claim, should be beating a determined path to the door of Native Americans to receive their wisdom and input. But they aren't. |
Mon, 20 March 2017
Chris Smith is not LDS but has been fascinated with the tradition since he dated the local Mormon bishop's daughter in high school. His research as a religious historian has lead him to the conclusion that Joseph Smith sought to resolve 19th Century America's political conundrums allegorically through the Book of Mormon. He argues that Joseph's hope was that one day the church he established would redeem the USA and become the Kingdom of God on Earth. |
Sun, 19 March 2017
David Conley Nelson has written an extensive account of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Nazi Germany in his book "Moroni and the Swastika'. Desperate to keep the church alive during World War II the Mormons exploited congruences between the faith and the Nazi Party with shocking results. |
Sun, 19 March 2017
I catch up with Sam Brown for a very quick chat about this cultural moment that sees us grappling with the question of the Book of Mormon as a 'translation'. |
Wed, 15 March 2017
Philip Barlow, Leonard J. Arrington Chair of Mormon History and Culture, and the 2017 fellow at the Maxwell Institute at BYU joins me to discuss the state of Mormon Studies. We discuss the need for new conversations regarding the Book of Mormon and the place of Joseph Smith in the tradition. |
Tue, 14 March 2017
Professor Richard Bushman's contribution to contemporary Mormon Studies cannot be overstated. In this interview we discuss the need for a refreshed understanding of the idea of the 'translation' of the Book of Mormon; the imperative for a more supple Mormon conversation, and the urgency for us to speak up with candor at church. We also talk about the upcoming Mormon Art Center Festival at Riverside Church in New York City. |
Wed, 8 March 2017
Carolina Allen, founder of Big Ocean Women, discusses the motivation behind her desire to find a space for women away from some of the more aggressive politics that progressive feminism is known for. Rather than seeing a more gentle and inclusive feminism as weak, she sees a peaceful, non-combative posture as more powerful, inviting and intuitive. |
Tue, 7 March 2017
Natasha Helfer Parker, Mindy Gledhill, Jana Spangler, Andrea Radke-Moss and Rachel Hunt Steenblik discuss their experiences at the Women's March in Washington DC and New York City. Contrary to Sister Elaine Dalton's observation each of these women found the event to be sacred, peaceful and transformative. |
Tue, 7 March 2017
How did The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints become an over-bloated corporate bureaucracy? What are the implications for the way in which the church practices religion, and for the way it inspires faith? Ron and Josh Madson address these questions and share some reflections about how all of this squares up with the God's passion for justice and Jesus' call for the relief of the poor. |
Sat, 25 February 2017
A conversation about the the Disney film 'Moana', its meaning and its significance and as 'Polynesian' Mormon women. |
Thu, 23 February 2017
Mormon women, particularly those from Utah, aren't necessarily known for their assertiveness. Socialized in a heavy patriarchy, too many women are socialized to accept that surrender to the authority of masculinity is necessary for their salvation. Julie de Azevedo Hanks takes this cultural habit on in her recently published The Assertiveness Guide for Women. Drawing from her extensive research and work in this area Julie joins Gina to discuss the religious and cultural influences that might complicate a woman's desire to be assertive along with good advice about what to do about that. |
Wed, 11 January 2017
![]() A candid chat with sex, marriage and family therapists Natasha Helfer-Parker and Julie de Azevedo Hanks about Wendy Nelson's controversial talk at the January 2017 Young Single Adult World Wide Broadcast - part two |
Wed, 11 January 2017
![]() A candid chat with sex, marriage and family therapists Natasha Helfer-Parker and Julie de Azevedo Hanks about Wendy Nelson's controversial talk at the January 2017 Young Single Adult World Wide Broadcast. |
Sun, 8 January 2017
Guest's from across the world share their objection to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's forthcoming appearance at Donald Trump's inauguration. |
Tue, 27 December 2016
Peter Bleakley has had an intriguing journey in Mormonism, born at BYU to British parents he grew up in England loving the Mormon theology and teachings and enjoying a life in the church that he treasures. Of late he's less pleased with the church's departure from the Mormonism he came to love and has much to say these days about the seemingly uninspired corporatization of the church. Yet, he remains on the pews, faithfully serving, but with hope that one day Mormonism will recapture the vision that once had his heart. |
Mon, 19 December 2016
Recently 16-year-old Abel Nelson's Sunday School Teacher asked her students to submit questions that they might have about the church. Abel discusses these questions with host, Gina Colvin. |
Fri, 16 December 2016
Recently released Bishop, Richard Ostler reflects on his ministry to the hundreds of young people on the fringes of the church in his YSA Ward in Magna, Utah. |
Tue, 6 December 2016
While in the United States LDS church finances are not publically accessible, this isn't the case in Commonwealth countries where the LDS church is usually registered as a charitable trust. In this episode Chris Mace gives an overview of the annual financial reports of Canada, the UK, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Ireland. |
Sun, 4 December 2016
When Isabella Parker (Witchita, Kansas) was 14 years old she joined her school's Gay Straight Alliance and she submitted a profile to Ordain Women. At the same time she was also called to be the Mia Maid Class President. When her bishop discovered Isabella's social justice activities, things changed dramatically for her and her family. |